ESnet Renews, Upgrades Transatlantic Network Connections

Three years after ESnet first deployed its own transatlantic networking connection, the project is now being upgraded to four 100 gigabits-per-second links. These links gives researchers at America’s national laboratories and universities ultra-fast access to scientific data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and other research sites in Europe.

The four new connections link peering points in New York City and London, Boston and Amsterdam, New York and London, and Washington, D.C. and CERN in Switzerland. The contracts are with three different telecom carriers.

“Our initial approach was to build in redundancy in terms of both infrastructure and vendors and the past three years proved the validity of that idea,” said ESnet Director Inder Monga. “So, we stuck with those design principles while upgrading the fourth link to 100G.”

Overall goals of the new agreements accomplished:

Increase in overall capacity to meet projected demand

Reduction in the overall cost

Increase in the diversity of the cable systems providing ESnet circuits, and

Another new component is a collaboration with Indiana University funded by the National Science Foundation with its Networks for European, American and African Research (NEAAR) award within the International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program. The goal of NEAAR is to make science data from Africa, such as that collected by the Square Kilometer Array, and Europe, like data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, available to a broader research community.